About the author

Mark Visbeek is a designer, musician, superstar, and loves illeism. Always looking to create beautiful things, I'm often distracted by the amazing stuff happening around me. My most important weapons are limitless amounts of love and a faux-French accent.

I love art, I love technology, I love music, I love science. But what really tickles my fancy is when these four collide into a massive pretentious orgy of spectacular nerdy goodness. Sonic Acts is that orgy, and it’s due this weekend. Let me shine a light on it for you.

At seven locations throughout Amsterdam, the four day festival will satisfy your every futuristic desire and utopian dream with a mix of live performances, presentations, exhibitions and installations, all within this edition’s theme ‘travelling time’. And don’t be mistaken, this biennial festival has got quite a track record: it’s the fourteenth edition and the programme is packed with interesting projects.

What to see?

The one thing you may definitely not miss is the exhibition at NIMk. With works by eight international artists, they explore the experience of time in several sound and film installations. Sporting incredibly daring descriptions like ‘Forty-eight flip-dots coated with first surface mirrors reflect part of a slide image of people sitting on a tribune’, how can it not be wonderful?

Also, educate yourself by going to the Michael Pisaro show. All that four-to-the-floor house and techno crap is starting to get boring anyway, and it’s time to remind yourself that there’s other ways to make music. Pisaro takes it a step further by disregarding rhythm and timing altogether, and creates music ‘in which time simply passes’. How’s that for a refreshing change?